This invention relates to an implement for weeding, commonly referred to as a hoe. The implement herein disclosed gathers weeds between the foliage and the root, abuts and gathers to the weed at the root immediately below the foliage with a non-cutting edge, and enables pulling and dislodgement of the weed with an essentially shock-free movement by pulling the tool handle toward the user with a simple continuous motion.
Weeds, for example puncture vines, sand burrs, and other ground-hugging weeds, have two methods of survival. First, when the weed is dislodged, as being eaten by an animal or pulled from the ground by a gardener, the plant undergoes a jarring shock-like motion. This jarring shock-like motion on the plant dislodges multitudes of mature seeds. Although the plant may be entirely gone (including the root), the seeds are not gone. As a result, and on a long-term basis, the seeds germinate, new weeds grow, and the weeds return.
Second, in the usual case when the weed is dislodged, the root remains behind. It is well known that weeds regenerate rapidly from roots remaining after the bulk of the plant is “weeded”. Such regeneration is fast, as the weed already has an established root system ready to supply a full stream of nutrients to the new rapidly growing weed foliage.